Tampere Biennale 2.0 continues at the Ung Nordisk Musik festival in August

This spring’s edition of the Tampere Biennale had to be cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic, but the replacement radio festival, Tampere Biennale 2.0, began on Yle Radio 1 last week and will continue at the Ung Nordisk Musik festival in August.

Ung Nordisk Musik (UNM) [Young Nordic Music] is an annual festival for Nordic composers and sound artists, organised in each of the Nordic countries in turn. The next festival will be held in Tampere from 24 to 29 August 2020. Its theme is ‘Music Ecology’.

The Tampere Biennale 2.0 @ UNM2020 programme consists of concerts, a family day, sound art installations and video works posted on our website.

The concerts to be held at UNM in Tampere are a concert by Uusinta Ensemble and a guitar recital by Patrik Kleemola. Kleemola performs at the Old Church on Wednesday 26 August at 21.00, and Uusinta Ensemble performs at Konsu concert hall at Puistotorni on Friday 28 August at 19.00. Ticket sales for the UNM concerts will begin later. Tickets purchased for the cancelled concert of the Uusinta Ensemble on Thursday 2 April will be honoured at the Ensemble’s replacement concert in August.

The Tampere Biennale family day will be held at Laikku Culture Centre on Saturday 29 August. Children’s Culture Centre Rulla runs a nonstop workshop on a nature theme from 10.00 to 16.00, and the music fairy tale Haapaneitty, mettäntyttö [in Finnish] will be presented in Musiikkisali at 14.00.

The panel discussion Inspiraation portaat: luonto, taide ja toiminta [Stairway to inspiration: nature, art and action] postponed from the Tampere Biennale preview event to the UNM festival features author Anni Kytömäki, Tampere Biennale artistic director Jennah Vainio and Anneli Jussila, executive director of the Finnish Natural Heritage Foundation. Compositions by students at Pirkanmaa Music Institute are included on the programme. The panel discussion takes place at the café at Laikku Culture Centre on Tuesday 25 August starting at 16.30, followed by the composition concert in the music room at 17.30.

The video works that were to have been on display at the Gallery at Laikku Culture Centre at the Tampere Biennale will be presented online: Marionette by Antti Laitinen and Removing Defences by Kalle Hamm and Dzamil Kamanger will be available on the Tampere Biennale website throughout August 2020.

The sound art installations will be installed as planned in the garden at Laikku Culture Centre, but at a later time: Laikku’s Oracle by Petri Kuljuntausta and Avian Electronics ǀ Electronic Bird Songs by Ville Aalto will be set up in the trees outside Laikku Culture Centre between 19 and 30 August 2020.

“I’m happy that we’ve been able to reschedule part of the Biennale programme for late summer, thanks to the efforts of our staff,” says Jennah Vainio, artistic director of the Tampere Biennale. “I would particularly like to thank the Finnish Broadcasting Company and the Ung Nordisk Musik festival, which I was actively involved in myself around the turn of the millennium.”

The Tampere Biennale 2.0 programme will extend far into next year, as the premiere of the motion opera Alma! has been postponed to 17 February 2021, and talks are going on about including the Kamus concert in the ‘Tulkinnanvaraista’ concert series. Sadly, not all of the concerts planned for the cancelled Biennale can be rescheduled.

The full programme of the Ung Nordisk Musik festival is published today at unmfestival.fi. The performances of the Tampere Biennale 2.0 radio festival broadcast on Yle Radio 1 on 2 and 3 April will remain available in the Yle Areena online service until the end of April.